Are We Not The Same
by Spartan322
Summary: Ever wonder what a story would be like if Hiccup was a bit more culturally normalized (yet somehow ambiguous) and Astrid wasn't such a vindictive Mary Sue? No? Well too bad, I'm doing it anyway. And I am not just following the first film. (it probably mostly won't be followed at all, though I am gonna use some of the same plot devices)
1. Chapter 1

**Alright, so I got caught on an idea, as happens when I get frustrated with people's creations, I was reading In Dragons We Trust by Zenmaster21, and it did something interesting, as it claimed to only flip Astrid and Hiccup's roles while replaying the first film. It didn't actually do this, it instead only made Astrid weak and not respected and Hiccup stronger, and a bit more respected. This changed up the character dynamics a good bit in ways that were actually different, and so it pulled me in. Now the first issue I had is by "replaying" the first film, I mean it just basically ripped the script, changed up a few parts, added a few others, and then re-released it. Now I have nothing wrong retelling parts of the films, I did it in one of my fics, half a chapter was basically the first scene of the movie. The issue is I tried to avoid that to the best of my ability, and only used it to setup the story. The problem here is the exact objective is to retell the story with as few changes as possible, which includes a Snotlout hitting on Hiccup for some reason, and Hiccup and Astrid simply just swapped between each other in many scenes. Alright, now that I've complained about my issues with a story that is years old and nobody probably cares, I should explain what I'm doing.**

 **Well for one, now I've got this concept in my head, the idea of re-doing the first film with these changes, I'm just gonna see how far I getting writing it. Except I'm not redoing the first film. What I'm instead gonna do is more than a simple character role flip. The only thing I'm gonna say here (as I'm writing this as it develops in my head so...yeah) is I'm keeping the core plot devices and such, but it's more or less a what if that follows it own tale.**

 **So lets begin, I hope this doesn't suck.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Berk, with a little Something Else

 _Welcome to Berk, a charming village where winter never settles and every waking moment is spent chilling in your bones. Every day spent could set you up for a thousand spent inflames and you'd still need a cover. It's about as wet as an island of sea bearing fisherman warriors can get, and it's just as bland. The food we manage to catch is just as bland, and the people made extra brutal for it. This desolate wasteland is king to only three types of comforts, ice, seawater, and bass._

 _But enough of my home, there must be more to it then fish and frozen blood? Well as a matter of fact there is, we have traders, bakers, blacksmiths, and warriors, many jobs to fill. The only problem is we don't function like most other villages, while you'd expect the town drunk, or bandits, in this case more likely pirates, if they even had the resistance to try, but regardless, you'd expect a village to be plagued by simple problems, one which might involve a flu that kills most of the population, or locusts devouring the crops. But you see, that's not what we suffer from, our issue is a little older than those, and a little more life threatening. We have these pests, these flighty creatures that come every so often to take our food and leave us to starve, the specific distinction these creatures have from a locust however is that they're thousand ton beasts who spit flames. We have a dragon problem. How bad is it? Well on a scale of one to ten, I'd say killing entire households, burning the remains, and ransacking the remaining food._

 _That being our residential problems, I've got a much more specific problem, my name's Hiccup. Yeah odd name, but it could be worse, I could've been named after a troll or giant, being the runt though I got the special privilege of Hiccup instead. Although I don't know if anyone exactly consider me a runt now. I mean I'm not bulky, I'm not really as strong as most of my "friends" even, but I'm definitely not weak or sickly. But I suppose I've yet to truly outgrow the title, and maybe that's just the problem._

 _Side point, I should probably clarify what I mean by "friends." So there is Snotlout, a much huskier cousin of mine who believes in his own pride, to the point he believes he's better than everyone else; in every way you could be both a snob and a slob at the same time. Next come the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, the village tricksters trying to wreak havoc, and usually they succeed. They look mostly the same, however they fight over just about everything. Then comes Fishlegs, the upcoming dragon expert, devoted to pretty much anything you could know about dragons. Lastly comes Astrid, a probably more adept runt than me, determined and competitive, but in a much worse position than anyone, she has looks to hold back some form of respect. While she isn't outright clumsy or harmful to the village, her nature to be out in the open just to prove herself has proven to be more a flaw then an advantage, especially when she can't defend herself against the beasts ransacking the village._

 _She's a fierce person, easy to enrage, and if it's bad enough, she can be a true threat to your health out of pure fury. But she doesn't contain the strength alone to master her opponents, and outside of that fury, she can't effectively wield her weapons to the extent she needs. Maybe if she..._

 _Nevermind, anyhow, we've lived on this icy rock for seven generations, and each one has been fighting dragons. Dragon killing is everything round here, any respect you don't have by stature is earned through dragons. From birth to death, everything we do is fight dragons, and we don't see it ending soon. As Vikings, it's in our nature, why not leave you ask? Well we're Vikings, we're stubborn, we aren't willing to give up our home. But from what I've heard of our latest rations, it might be more sensible an option, but when did anyone say Vikings were sensible either.?_

* * *

The clang of iron being struck against iron can be heard from the distinct building in the market of the village. It's nearly past sunset already, and Hiccup, the smaller sized, auburn haired, green eyed teen is repairing more swords with little effort. While Hiccup is repairing, Gobber, a blond haired, poorly beaten Viking missing an arm, leg, and teeth, looks towards the sky in question, preparing for the upcoming fight he smells coming.

"There's to be a raid tonight," He tells his apprentice still staring at the sky "Prepare for a hard night lad."

"Really? Harder than dad's been pushing me?"

"Now you know he's just trying to protect you, he wants you to be ready."

"Ready for what? When he inevitably gets disappointed?" Hiccup responds discouraged.

"Now you know him, he has a hard time showing his care, he just wants to push to be better." Gobber carefully responds, not wanting to upset his apprentice to another week of isolation.

"Yeah, definitely feeling the hard part, not as sure on the care part. It's just..."

"Hold that," Cutting the younger man "We'll talk later, dragons. Warm up the smithy."

Hiccup, pushing aside starts preparing the forge for the onslaught upcoming. While this goes on, havoc quickly starts consuming the village, fighting starting at every corner, fire bursting to life on every other house. "Prepare the torches" and "Where's the nets?" are sounded off in the background. Eventually the torches inside the village are lit and raised, while the trebuchets armed and manned. In this time, the common Deadly Nadders, a large widely colored scaled wyvern covered in spikes, Gronkles, a dark colors wart look dragon whose wings flap like a bee, and Hideous Zipplebacks, whose double head green skin earned them a hard reputation again even multiple opponents, are the only ones so far seen attacking. Quickly enough the forge is being overrun with repair and weapon requests, and the two smiths can't fulfill them fast enough.

* * *

Thus Astrid, a blond haired girl of fifteen years old, ran out upon hearing of a dragon attack, anxious to try putting herself into harm's way for a chance to gain some stature in the village. With her axe on her back, she begins searching for a fight, while being constantly advised to either get inside or go help the bucket brigade with fires. Her uncanny ability to just barely miss danger only to put others in it had earned her the title of unlucky despite always coming out unscathed.

And even though that past week her father told her that she needs to stop rushing out into the fray of things, she didn't bother to actually consider her words. In her time she believes she almost took down three dragons, and saw that as overriding his sense. However this time, Spitelout, a large brute naturally second in command of the island, telling her to get to the fire brigade and pushing her aside, telling a subordinate to watch her. She couldn't rush out under watch.

So she was forced to deal with playing fire brigade until she was free of the supervision. Another downside, she was forced to stay with the other teens part of the brigade, half of which she couldn't stand. Ruffnut and Fishlegs were alright occasionally, at least when the former wasn't being outright dumb, and when the latter wasn't randomly spouting off dragon facts. For Tuffnut and Snotlout however, they were insufferable in her experience, alternate twin being reckless and stupid, not that she had could really criticize recklessness, but the stockier teen was a snobby, sloppy mess of a brute. Often trying to hit on her, or outright any female he could eligible find, or declare how good he was at whatever. Sometimes he'd just rudely pick on the someone with little reason, sometimes it was younger kids out and about, or it could be Hiccup, Fishlegs, or her if he was feeling especially bad, though it was more usually Hiccup. Even though he rarely ever warranted it.

But in the end she just sat near them, but opted to ignore them. She was wishing that Hiccup at least wasn't needed at the forge, he'd make for better company than the rest of the brigade. _At least we'd be up over these morons_ she thought.

She and the rest of the brigade spent their time finding and putting out fires, in the process Snotlout was trying to hit on her every so many minutes, Ruffnut and Tuffnut seemed to be trying to instigate more fires, and Fishlegs was pretty much the only one of the group watching for fire. She was keeping a distance eye on the fires as well, but being more concerned with getting out and earning some honor, she really was just watching for any supervisors that might prevent her from achieving her goal.

After some time putting out fires, she got her opportunity, being left alone long enough she pulled her axe off the brigade cart and ran off. She ran until she found a lonesome Monstrous Nightmare, a wyvern known for its liquid flammable saliva and the uncanny habit to set itself on fire, knowing how dangerous a target it was she still strived to take it down if it killed her, this was her chance. She had a hard time moving carrying her axe, but she was unwilling to drop, that slow down cost her rushing at the dragon and it nearly singed her, dodging out the way though she was able to smack in the face. That however raised the stakes causing the dragon to smack her back with its claws and then ignite itself, before it could actually manage further retaliation, it was with a hammer from the streets, and then Stoick, the Chief of the tribe and red haired monster of a man, jumped in front of her from the opposite direction of the hammer's origin and picked it up. HE quickly smacked the beast across its face before it could recover, causing it to fly off while the tribe leader lifted Astrid away from her spot on the ground and carrying her to the brigade cart.

"Who in Hel's name let her run off?" But nobody responded. "If I have to figure who was supervision duty after this..."

"I was Chief" said the one assigned by Spitelout.

"I'll deal with you later, get her inside, the forge is being overworked and we need resupplies." And with those words, Astrid was even more angry. The only time when Stoick would suggest somebody go help out at the forge was to get them out of the way, they'd be much easier to keep busy and to keep track of without leading them to somewhere out of the village. It meant she was forced to stick back and do basically nothing. On the bright side, Gobber and Hiccup were probably working overtime and those two working were better company then the brigade at its current state. The fact Snotlout is trying extra hard that day to be "flirtatious" making him worse to her then usual.

As she was being directed, she had heard a screaming hiss, and soon enough everyone knew what that meant. The most dangerous and elusive dragon had come out and was taking shots. The Night Fury as it was coined, never stole food, never fought on the ground, and didn't miss a shot. Add the explosive effectiveness of each attack, devastating in too many ways to count, and that it had gained the reputation for never being seen, it had become the ultimate fear to Berk if not the entire archipelago. It became known never to engage the dragon, to such a degree that rumors that even seeing it clearly would kill the witness. Astrid wasn't even sure how you'd take down such a fast beast that never lands, given she never believed in the rumors spread about them.

But with that she was directed by her supervisor to the forge and left there, upon entering, she was swiftly greeted by Gobber before he ran out to assist with the attack. He asked her to help out the front. All she could think was _for a two limb cripple, he's pretty effective against dragons_. She then entered Hiccup's work area, exchanging quick greetings and an explanation of what Gobber told her and got to work helping Hiccup repair as many weapons as possible, or providing weapons when needed. When the shop showed slight signs of slowing, Hiccup immediately stopped working, went to the back and pulled out a mixed metal and wood contraption that left Astrid clueless.

Before he could leave however, she stood in front of him to prevent that, she had an idea of what he might try to do, but she wanted to confirm it. "So what are you doing?" She asked casually.

"Just going out for a few, I'll be back quick."

"Oh no, I'm not sitting here while you go play when you oversized crossbow, I'm coming along." She insisted.

"But who's gonna 'hold down the fort'?" air quoting Gobber's usual exit phrase.

"Given I'm no smith, my ability to tell people they'll need to wait for weapons probably doesn't mean much, doesn't seem to be much of a fort to hold down."

"Alright fine, I'm going up to the cliffside to watch for the Fury, see if I can get a few shots, do you want to come?" He asked with a sigh.

The girl simply got out of the way and as he moved towards the cliff, she followed behind. Upon reaching the cliff, Hiccup prepared his sling and waited for a shot. Astrid standing on the side was eager to do the unthinkable, taking down a Night Fury would earn them a reputation not only as the best dragon killers on Berk, all before they were actually put into dragon training, but possibly the best dragon hunters in the archipelago, they'd make Berk feared and respected in ways never before known by the tribes, they'd have earned their right to sit by their family in pride. They both were extremely aware of this, though Hiccup had thought it more through. But he needed a clear head to make the shot. Looking towards the sky, they both started to hear the inborn fear of Vikings. As the whine started getting louder, Hiccup noticed a pattern, he could use the stars to track the Fury's position, watching the stars he waited till it was at its closest, which he knew would be when it hit the trebuchet they were next to. So as soon as he heard the beast fire, he fired, being sent back by the kickback of the machine.

In the process, he and Astrid saw and heard the beast get struck down. This bewildered both to speechlessness, after a minute of basking in what they had just accomplished, they had to confirm that they both saw and heard the same thing. Upon validating themselves, they were overjoyed and full of pride. That was until a Nightmare came from the cliff and crushed the machine, standing in front of the teens growling. Astrid's first instinct was to use her axe to hit it, to kill or drive away, she didn't care, she didn't have a plan for dealing with the unexpected dragon. She managed to harm the dragon's scales and disorient it enough so they could proceed running away, Hiccup being further ahead. As he ducked between buildings, he watched Astrid to make sure she'd be alright. When she caught up to to him, they came to run towards the forge, Hiccup hoped that somebody would be able to at least scare off the Nightmare there, upon reaching it, fighting upon other parts of the village started to fade. The Nightmare was unaware that his time to escape was thinning and as it attacked the teens in the forge, who continued to wait for someone to help them, it failed to notice Stoick and Baldr, Astrid's large blond haired father, rushing towards it to attack.

First Stoick got its attention by hitting in the side while Baldr threw a hammer at its stomach to set it off balance while it had its head inside the forge. In that time, Stoick engaged it with the hammer on a one versus one while Baldr lead the teens away from the act. At the end Stoick scared off the beast after it ran out of juice and he beat it many times.

Looking back at the forge, seeing how damaged and much of a mess it was, he was furious at the two he considered responsible. Gobber quickly came from behind Baldr, who was holding his daughter while Spitelout was holding Hiccup. Gobber looked into the forge, sighed, rubbed his face, and then shook his head. He wasn't even slightly mad, he was actually rather use to it between himself, Hiccup, the dragons, and occasionally Astrid, the entire smithy was probably the most consistently scorched thing on the island. What bothered him is Stoick was gonna hold this once again on their two heads, not entirely unjust, they did disobey orders, but he just wasn't as willing to strike them on that. He supposed spending as much time as he had with both of them may have been a contributing factor, but regardless, he sympathized with them for it.

"Who let her out into the fray? This is twice tonight now I had to get involved, Vikar, your on probation. And what was Hiccup doing outside the forge? Who let him out?" The burly red haired man yelled. Hiccup tried to interrupt him, "Sorry, dad, but to be fair, I shot down a Night Fury." But Stoick continued, ignoring him "You know what, it doesn't matter, get them back to their houses, make sure they get there" He instructed Gobber, who slapped Hiccup behind the head and led both teens to their respective houses, starting first with Hiccup's. As they went on, Snotlout and Tuffnut stood by picking at Hiccup, ignoring Astrid. Ruffnut didn't care for the whole thing, and Fishlegs just stood there letting it play was until Gobber shoved the two going at Hiccup.

* * *

"Does he even care? It's like I don't ever actually talk. As if when I speak, it's all just proves how unlike we are? And all it does is piss him off."

"Now you're going about it all wrong, it's not you, it's your way thinking that he can't stand."

"Thanks, I actually needed that," Hiccup deadpanned.

"Alright look, you're a good fighter, probably one of the best of your generation, he's made sure you would be, but when you keep bucking him every chance you get, and invent these things, the way you go about it all makes him uncomfortable. You're just trying so hard to be something he does understand, instead of trying to be what you are."

"And what would that be?" Astrid asked.

"Something else."

"Well that's a crystal clear message that makes so much sense," Hiccup was however more encouraged to prove that he really was a Viking, and not this something else now, though he only showed a facade of discouragement. Both Astrid and Gobber could see through the disguised emotions, but didn't bother to comment on it.

* * *

 **Yay, I did something stupid and started another fic. In all honesty I should probably stop doing this and finish my other fics first, or find someway to work on them all at once but whatever. And you know what, I plan to get on that somehow someway. As I said, this was basically random inspiration sparked by Zenmaster21's fic, specifically all the issues I have with it. So I guess what I'll say here is I do plan to do my other fics, I actually have one of them finished now, just gotta perform some edits and junk. As for my plan, honestly anything I say will probably be contradicted because I'm inconsistent bastard like that, and I need to reorder a lot of other things before pulling fics out on a consistent basis.**

 **But here's the idea I want to do if I can manage it, (being the inconsistent bastard I am, take it with a grain of salt) I'll probably get randomly inspired by fics or stories every so often, I might occasionally thus write out a full chapter of a fic or something and just throw it at the wall, see if it sticks, if I can keep up some momentum, stick to it for a bit, burnout, maybe try another one, and then repeat that process through all my fics. The fact I only come back every so often also screws with that. If I'm lucky though I might be able to manage having a bunch of random stories I can jump on and off at a whim. Achieving that, I'll probably be more likely to write something then do the lag behind I usually end up doing. Yeah, focusing on a singular project is a thing I need to fix, but whatever. Honestly I'm just hoping at this point that I'll pull off getting momentum for a story. That's my (hopeful) reasoning for posting this.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: I explain everything at the starting AN in Chapter 3, but what I'm basically demanding from this point on is to not post reviews (and honestly not PM me on it, Chapter 3 explains it in full) on whether Astrid is a Mary Sue, I am merely documenting me being an dumb jerk, as part of my repentance.**

 **Oh wow. So people get mad at me for calling Astrid a Mary Sue? You guys need to learn what that means, hell, just because I like the idea of her character doesn't mean I approve of a character so blatantly perfected to the point that she can make random instant character changes any time the writers want to. From the first movie to the second film, in pretty much every single episode of the shows, she's defined as a Mary Sue. And movie perspective doesn't matter on this, if the character doesn't have character flaws, to which Astrid does not as far as watching the movie, as a character, she does not make a mistake. This is what makes her a Sue, no flaws, no mistakes, the fact she is so understanding during the romantic flight just proves it.**

 **Now I'll get to the individual reviews, (and I hate you guest reviews and dude who disabled PMs, the fact I can't talk to you directly pisses me off, sorry dude who thanked me, but it annoys me I can't simply message you and thank you even) but I didn't expect people to get so offended by a basic fact of writing. And yes, I have read Drengskapr, but that's different, my objective here isn't a role reversal, Astrid is reckless and weaker, Hiccup is a lot better than in the movie, but he's still not like Astrid in the movie, there might be a few romance moments, but nothing like that fic, and Drengskapr is more about Astrid's journey and her relationship with Hiccup, this story is a much more broader plot that (well probably, I don't see myself following Drengskapr in this sense either) doesn't goes years ahead. Though admittedly there might be some inspiration from it given I really liked it, but I draw inspiration from everything I read, watch, and listen to so that kinda makes sense.**

 **Anyway, now that I've ransacked the people that reviewed me, I'm thanking you favorites and followers, your support helps a lot with encouraging me. (along with NatBlake and the guest who wanted to see more, thanks)**

* * *

Chapter 2: Beginning a Wild Ride

Astrid being led back to her home by Gobber was certain that Hiccup wasn't planning to stay inside. Given the look in his eyes and since Stoick had to clean up the mess they had made, he probably went out just as Gobber left. She was even sure Gobber knew that given the look on his face. But they didn't talk during the walk. She just kept thinking of a plan to make her way to the forest and follow Hiccup.

But as they reached her front door, Gobber interrupted her thoughts.

"You've got skills lass, and not all to the dragons."

"But that's all that matters to everyone else."

"Aye, to many. But look at Hiccup, when he's doing his job and not off distracted."

"But he's not even satisfied with that, working in the forge, he complains about it, when he's not, he's being pushed aside." Astrid argued.

"Usually by Stoick, the old man doesn't see what his boy can do,"

"Doesn't he see he's pushing Hiccup though?"

"I don't see that he does, it's beyond him to notice these things, ever since she died." And with that, the air between them gained a melancholy weight. For a moment they both refused to speak. But Astrid retorted just as she was about to close her door. "Then I wonder what's my father's excuse."

* * *

Hiccup, out as Astrid knew, was walking through the forest searching for his prize. He'd finally taken the ultimate trophy of any Viking out of the sky, and he somehow couldn't find a trace of it. He'd been searching for a few hours now unable to locate a hint.

"I hit the damn thing out of the freaking sky, and I can't even manage to track it in ropes. How cursed do I have to be to lose the whole damn thing?" He growled slamming his fist into a tree in frustration. He quickly realized how badly that was to hurt though and cradled his arm in the pain. Moments after a quick shake of his head, he smacked a branch out of the way and received a blowback from said tree. Upon being hit he fell to his knees and screamed out as loud as he could, hoping that would settle his anger, but it didn't fix his frustration and discouragement. "What am I doing?"

"Hiccup?" He heard Astrid calling from nearby. He searched around for a moment before seeing her climbing some rocks.

"What are you..." He stood while trying to ask but she cut him off.

"I saw you shoot down that Fury, I wasn't gonna sit by and let you get at it alone would I?" She smiled predicting what he'd ask.

"No I suppose not, I just thought Gobber dragged you home, nobody came after you?"

"Not really, everyone was so busy with the cleanup they didn't notice," Shrugging.

"Alright then...well I've lost it anyway, so what does it matter now?"

Looking behind him as she move closer, Astrid saw a cratered line followed by busted trees that seemed suspicious. "Did you look down there?" Indicating with her head towards what she was sure was the Night Fury's final resting spot.

He looked down the line, looking to each tree and the broken rocks. "How did I..." But overcome with confusion, joy, and curiosity, he stopped mumbling and tried to climb down the slope. Astrid followed closely behind.

They came upon one last boulder which wasn't broken up. Reaching over he looked down, only to see a black figure, and quickly crouched back down, motioning to Astrid to be silent. He thus reached for a knife on himself, only to find none. Confused, he patted himself down to no avail. "Crap," He cursed to which Astrid asked "What's wrong?"

"I must've left without even my knife, must be at home or something," He responded worried he'd have to go back to get it.

"Try this," She said handing him a small dagger. "It's better than nothing, I'd have my axe but I was afraid somebody would bug me over it."

He took the knife from her with a nod and a thanks, creeping beside the rock to approach the Fury. At the same time, Astrid crawled around it as well to watch Hiccup. He slowly approached the beast then and examined it in all its glory, the beast that terrorized them for so long, wrapped in rope at his mercy. It was magnificent in a way to him, sleek and dramatic, no wonder it was master of the sky, the black beast looked much better prepared for flight than any other dragon he'd heard of. Not a horn, not even a long point on its body as far as he could see. There it rested seemingly as dead as possible, but he was just marveled by what he could only describe as beautiful.

Eventually however, he snapped out of it. It was a beast that had terrorized them for so long, destroying people's lives and killing everyone for so little. This monster, though majestic, needed to die and he was the one to do it. It was there he kicked it, see if it responded. To which it woke up, startling him and Astrid back, but neither of them failed to notice the eyes. The green color, kinda what you'd expect more from a cat, dilated and thin. Neither of them spoke, the combination of so many things going on, especially in both their heads, it was hard to comprehend.

Astrid saw just as much the majesty of the beast as Hiccup, and was in awe of it. Now she understood why it could be so much worse than any other dragon. This is what made it fast and invisible, perfect for stealth.

But with all that in mind, Hiccup went forward to slice it open. He knew what he was to do, and he planned to do it not only for himself and Astrid, not even just his father, but for every villager. This was something that needed to die, something that could mark the last days of the horrors it had brought. Something which marked the legends as deadly to even look upon, but here was the moment it died. Hiccup raised his hand, preparing to strike, but doing so he looked into the beast's eyes. Of everything he saw in its eyes, the least he expected to see was understanding. He saw pity, remorse, despair, but nothing compared to what it did next. It gave up, laid its head down and left its fate to the first man that had bested its species. He never expected it to resign, it was as if it was more honorable than some men.

How crazy it was to him, Astrid didn't understand. As she sat there for a minute as Hiccup held his knife up and just hung it there. She didn't get it. _What is he doing?_ But soon enough, he just closed his eyes, drew a tear, and whisper "I can't." Astrid, hearing him but think she misheard asked "What?" He however ignored her and decided on a course of action, by letting the beast out of the ropes that held everything down.

When Astrid saw what he was doing, she was too shocked for moment to move. She soon quickly however rushed to stop him, but he had already cut through most of the rope, and by the time she yanked him off, the Fury was free. Thus the black menace that Astrid was least intent on killing jumped out of the rope, pushed her into a rock, knocking her out, and pinned Hiccup to the ground. The beast thus stared at him in what he assumed was gonna be a killing blow at blank range. Out of everything he'd done, those actions were the least he'd ever expected to do, and so he started reflecting on his entire life in that moment, wondering what he'd done wrong.

But just as he thought the dragon was to blast his skull, it roared in his face at a deafening volume. And then it jumped backwards and left. It continued screeching as it went on, but Hiccup just laid there, unable to comprehend it all. He continued to lay there contemplating everything that just happened, and in shock he laid unable to truly move.

After fifteen minutes of silence, Astrid finally got up groaning over the headache she had. She walked to Hiccup on the ground, ready to beat in not only rage but vengeance for letting their only chance at both redemption and village safety go.

"What is wrong with you?" She yelled at him pulling him up by his shirt. But he just slowly turned his head to her, still in shock. "Do you understand what you've just done?" She continued

He just sat there, knowing full well what he did, feeling entirely shamed for it, but unable to explain any of it. In the end however, what did it matter, especially to her. He had just released the most vicious monster to ever terrorize his people, and he did it all without a thought to anyone else.

Astrid on the other hand decided then just to drop him. She was so enraged but was unsure what to do. If she tried to tell the village, not only would it be mutiny and heresy to Stoick, but it be disrespectful to his entire line. And who would even believe her, especially when she was just and still in trouble alongside Hiccup for being out to catch it in the first place.

Walking away back to the village, she found it sort of ironic. In all senses she was forced to act like they, or more specifically Hiccup, had lied about it all. They had to act like they deserved the entire punishment, that they've yet to really serve. Though at this point she thought Hiccup now deserved much worse. But she decided he wasn't worth it, _let him rot_ for all she cared. And with that, Hiccup laid for another hour before being calmed enough to move.

* * *

In the time it took Hiccup to get home, he was unsure what to do. What could he even say? He let a Night Fury go, he clearly pissed off Astrid with what he did. What would everyone else think? Not that they'd believe him, and he was sure they'd probably not listen to her but what if they did? How is he suppose to resolve any of this? He supposed he could just leave it unresolved and continue working in the forge with Gobber, never bothering to see the fire of dragons you could say. Maybe his father would allow it, he generally didn't like letting him loose in the village during an attack, all he could do was hope his father didn't push him into training. As slim a chance as he really thought he had on that.

As he entered his home, his father saw him enter while sitting in his chair, contemplating as the food on the fire in the center of the room cooked.

"We have to talk son." And right then dread settled upon Hiccup; he didn't stop him. "If you're thinking I mad over you leaving the house, I'm over it." Believing that's what made Hiccup stand in his shock. "But...we need more fighters in the village, and every good one we can spare." He said as he continued looking towards the fire as he started leaning into his thighs. "I can't keep you under on that, especially when you run off anyway" Stoick chuckled a little at the thought. "And Gobber tells me that he thinks you'd do well in training. Says he's watched you train. And that you got skill with a sword." He wasn't sure what to think on that. "I thought he'd lost his mind honestly with all the things he said, it's just hard for me to see it, but at the end, maybe I'm not so blind to agree, so I've decided to put you in training, you've got about a week to prepare." Stoick got up, lifted the axe he had on the wall, and walked over to where Hiccup was standing. "I know it's not a sword, Gobber says you're best with one, but I thought I'd pass this old one down to you to remind you. Remind you that in this, you truly are a Viking at heart."

Hiccup, unable to think quick stumbled upon his words. He muttered a confused thanks to his father and couldn't really respond, surprised at the weight of what had just been set upon him, and just after what he did, this convinced him in some way Loki definitely was involved.

He eventually responded, "Dad...can I not just...I don't know...skip going into training. I mean we need blacksmiths, and Gobbers half crippled, and I don't know if we could really spare the time if an attack..."

But his father cut him off. "Gobber can take care of himself, and he manages just fine, we need as many equipped fighters as we can manage, besides, training won't get in the way of being the blacksmith."

Knowing he couldn't do much now, his father was obviously utterly convinced on the subject and was unlikely to budge. He gently said "Alright, thanks dad," and went upstairs without much else to add.

* * *

In the time since she watched Hiccup release the Night Fury, Astrid had made it home to a mostly empty house. She expected as much, her father wouldn't leave an unfinished mess like that raid to be cleaned up without him. Her mother also happened to not be home, _she must have been out getting food at the market_ Astrid suspected.

Some minutes after entering, the teen just went to her room and moped on for a bit, not sure how to resolve any of the mess Hiccup just made. She decided after an hour than to grab her axe, climb out her window, and just run into the forest. She thus just decided to swing her axe for the next few hours to get her frustrations out at the least, for its all she could do. Her axe, relatively small and light for one of a Viking, would be comparable to a blur. In her madness, she however lost track of time. Eventually though she got so mad she tore into a tree deep enough to make it difficult for her to pull it out. That just irritated her more, and upon trying to pull the axe out, she punched the tree in fury. But she couldn't manage it and eventually just slumped against the tree saddened. "What have you done Hiccup?" she finally gave into some despair. She just couldn't understand why he, of everyone in the village, would let the thing go. He wasn't superstitious, he wasn't revenant, he didn't just believe it was right, not how she knew him. How was she suppose to react to this even? What could she even do? It all seemed so confusing and stupid.

And on that thought she decided to just go home and give up thinking about it. Or at least to the best of her ability. Being calmed then, she figured her best bet to retrieve her axe then was to kick it out of the tree. Which worked. So with her axe out and her worn out limbs from all that she took out on the tree, she made it back home.

As she entered the door, she saw her mother making something while her father just sat there with his head in his palm. He was fully aware of Astrid, his wife even greeted his daughter after entering, but he wasn't sure what to do. So she just went upstairs to her room.

Though eventually Baldr decided upon speaking to his daughter, and walked up the stairs. Upon seeing his daughter just laying on her bed, clearly moping over something. He suspected it had something to do with him and his punishment, she had clearly come back from her usual routine to train when she was pissed off. He decided he needed to talk to her on what was floating around in his mind.

"Astrid?" She thus sat up and moved to the side of her bed, looking down as she did it all. She'd since started convincing herself she was somehow responsible for the Night Fury escaping and was feeling a good bit guilty for it. But Baldr only knew she was feeling down, given what she was showing, he started to suspect it wasn't entirely about his albeit light punishment that she never listened to anyhow. But he decided he might as well tell her what he decided upon. "I've been thinking, it's about time we stopped treating you like a child, something to be protected." This caught her attention, looking to her father out of the corner of her eye. "I've been speaking to Gobber over it, I've decided to put you into dragon training next week, I've already discussed it with your mother, and she agreed that it be better to give you a chance in the ring." She was now looking directly at him in surprise. The last thing she suspected was him to agree to put her into training, and without her ever actually bugging him on it. Not that it would've done any good anyway. "I'll just let you rest than." And so she watched him leave her room, leaving her confused, ecstatic but frustrated and upset. She decided then maybe rest was a good idea in that case, getting out of her day clothes. She put on her sleepwear, climbed into bed, and shut her eyes.

* * *

 **Pre-Chapter 3 Update: Alright, so I was going to update the next chapter and do this, but it seems that I'll need to state it before it's finished given everything.**

 **This was gonna be my apology for the AN on the next chapter:**

 **"I screwed up really bad, so first thing, I've gotta apologize for everything I've just done, especially with my author notes in that last chapter. I was condescending, ignored the points people made, I was being a jerk and I needed to cool down. Of everything, I needed to step back, some friends set me straight, buried the axe of "You screwed up" in my head that I so desperately needed, and I have to admit I've not only been going about it all wrong, I ruined every point I've had as a well. I've also reacted so extremely poor on everything, and I let it all get over my head to which I shouldn't have done. To this I can only ask for forgiveness from those that were affected. Now with all that said, I'm not relinquishing my point, I might change the summary later (as a friend of mine pointed out, I may have inadvertently been saying "I'm gonna write the first film better," or the like, I will clarify that was not my intent, nor do I believe it was poorly written, nor do I really have anything actually against general use of Mary Sues as devices for story, I'm not gonna get into it here because anything beyond that doesn't matter right now) however now I need to work much harder to make up for those mistakes. Along with that, and for more than just that, if you have Discord, I'm willing to debate on the matter that started this all at Spartan322#4657, I get if I've pushed it too far for responses on that. I'm also asking all readers (for agreement and disagreement) not bother to with it again here, I really shouldn't have responded (beyond a like "the story isn't about that, stick to story") to the entire thing at all outside of at least PMs. I'll delete all the guest reviews talking on it when this goes up, ask everyone not to post a review on it, direct it to my Discord if you really want to talk about it, in that case, from this point on I am gonna start marking it as spam for new reviews about solely that. (and make it clear on my responses that what I've said is no longer valid as far as I'm concerned, I'm keeping my author notes to mark what I've done and just add a quick note to prevent further response to it)"**

 **I am keeping this apology, and when I update I'll move it over to that AN only instead, I am also gonna now just delete every single review that mentions it. If you want to bug me on it or thank me, you're gonna need to do it in realtime, I'd do the same to the one real user but all I can do is mark as spam and I don't see it as spam after the provocation I made.**

* * *

 **Note: I explain everything at the starting AN in Chapter 3, but what I'm basically demanding from this point on is to not post reviews (and honestly not PM me on it, Chapter 3 explains it in full) on whether Astrid is a Mary Sue, I am merely documenting me being an dumb jerk, as part of my repentance.**

 **I'd complain about people thinking Astrid isn't a Mary Sue again, but I've done that enough and I already yelled at the people in the review responses so I'm gonna keep it at that. As for this, I really am just aiming for a unique experience, what I've done is not something I see as a role reversal, not like Drengskapr for example, even if it was inspired by one. Let me explain, I've not switch Hiccup out of being the protagonist, he still is, Astrid is just added to that, Hiccup also isn't the love interest motivation of Astrid, Astrid is weaker but she still hates dragons and prefers to train with her axe, (even though she isn't that great with it) there are just so many things to which really don't make this a role reversal. I'm also really gonna work on going beyond the plot of the movie, regardless of using the same devices. This will be a completely unique story on that front, trust me, I plan to make it much more different from the movie, I also plan to actually get into the heads of the characters, where as the movie kinda avoided the emotional and mental state of everyone.**

 **With that, I ask that if you liked this story, favorite and follow, and no matter what, just review the story. (I'd also like it if you review it based on the story, and not on the crap that triggered you...eh, one more time, Astrid is a Mary Sue) Now onto the responses.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Guest (who thanked me): Thanks I hope so too.**

 **Guest (who talked about Drengskapr): I already read it, and I'm not really role reversing here, Astrid's values are mostly kept, she's just more reckless as a character, (and contains some other character flaws I felt her character needed) and Hiccup stays to his, he's just not as reckless. (or as super flawed as the first film, but he's neither perfect) As for Astrid being a Mary Sue, here is tvtropes's "definition" of a Mary Sue:**

"The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye color, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing.

She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal. She has some sort of especially close relationship to the author's favorite canon character — their love interest, illegitimate child, never-before-mentioned sister, etc. Other than that, the canon characters are quickly reduced to awestruck cheerleaders, watching from the sidelines as Mary Sue outstrips them in their areas of expertise and solves problems that have stymied them for the entire series. (See Common Mary Sue Traits for more detail on any of these cliches.)

In other words, the term "Mary Sue" is generally slapped on a character who is important in the story, possesses unusual physical traits, and has an irrelevantly over-skilled or over-idealized nature."

 **That defines Astrid pretty well, however that's the original meaning of it, and tropes goes on to explain it being beyond just a fanfic attributed problem, and with the advent of the internet that classification started to lose meaning, if you want to be specific, she's really a Canon Sue, but I don't care about that, she is a Sue nonetheless and not only suffers from little to no character flaws, but she has all the attributes of an inserted Sue, beloved by the characters, skilled in every way, ect. So yes, in my book, and by the definitions tvtropes gives, she is a textbook Mary Sue.**

 **Guest (the other one complaining about Astrid being a Mary Sue): I just explained above how she is. She is not a gritty character, she is flawless in the movies and shows, she doesn't have to be shown in a positive light, but most way through the movie that's all she is, and then not only that, but after the romantic flight, her personality does a complete 180 and she is the most understanding character of everyone. Shall I go further on to explain it, I would, but why should I, I've already proved my point.**

 **NatBlake: Thanks man, its been awhile, I needed that from these reviews.**

 **mellielli04: Is it really laughable when I just defined it above? So just because she has skills earned what we presume is over time makes her not a Mary Sue? How does much of what you say even relate to how she is a Mary Sue? Also, she has a pretty tragic backstory in the show, her Uncle died supposedly of fear, frozen in it despite being Fearless, living with that mark on her name she wanted to prove that's not what a Hofferson is and was thus given his axe. That's not explained in the movie, but what does it matter still? She doesn't have any actual character flaws. How are her shortcomings ever shown in the first film? (or any of the franchise period actually) I mean, given what I just said, you can't really go on about it. The fact she changes on a dime and is the most understanding character in the whole franchise also more so contributes to then opposes the idea that she's a Mary Sue. And for the last time, perspective doesn't matter at all, her character is written without flaw in the franchise, doesn't matter that it's Hiccup's perspective, that doesn't negate the fact she is flawless as we see her.**

 **I will agree Drengskapr did her justice, but no way was it the only one to do it in such a way that it did, it's a remarkable example of it, but not the only one. Also, don't try to get metaphorical here, she isn't really much more than the built up love interest Mary Sue for Hiccup. If she suffered from a moment of weakness at some point, anywhere even in the show, I'd be much more hesitant to outright call her a Mary Sue, if Hiccup ever actually had to help her out with stuff like that, I'd probably be more agreeable with the metaphor, but she doesn't and he doesn't, the one time she gets close is in RTTE when she has to deal with her parents' house was destroyed, but even that got resolved in a manner that didn't really attribute flaws to her character. Look just admit it, Dreamworks wrote a Mary Sue, and they've not really stopped, the amount of times she's even made a mistake in the franchise is pretty much countable on one hand even.**


End file.
